Oregon Trails Over the Blue Mountains, 1811-1852

The Blue Mountains of Oregon, Between the Grand Ronde and the Umatilla and Walla Walla Rivers

    The Indian Tribes of southern Idaho and northeast Oregon had trails over the Blue Mountains that connected the two regions. When fur trappers from the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) of Canada and Britain came to the Pacific Northwest in the early 1800s, they began exploring the region for suitable Indian trails to connect their fur posts along the Columbia River as well as connecting to southern Idaho.
    The first journals of travel over the Blue Mountains were by Wilson Hunt and the Astorians 1811-1812, and by Robert Stuart 1812. They were representatives of the fur trading post called Fort Astoria, at the mouth of the Coloumbia River. Hunt had traveled westward from the Missouri River, while Stuart traveled eastward to the Missouri River.
    The 1818 fur post called Fort Nez Perces, at the mouth of the Walla Walla River, was connected to Snake Fort at the mouth of the Boise River (by the Walla Walla Trail) and, in turn, Snake Fort was eventually connected to Fort Hall, located on the Columbia River between Ross Fork and the Blackfoot River.
    These early Indian trails, if they permitted passage by wagon, would become part of the network of trails that became the Oregon Trail. In places where the existing trails would not accommodate wagons, the Oregon Trail Pioneers built parallel trails that would. The Blue Mountains are a good example of the need to build parallel trails.
    The 1818 Walla Walla Trail was suitable for horses but not for wagons. Portions of the trail were used by Nathaniel Wyeth in 1832 and he traveled the full trail in 1834. The Whitman Party followed it in 1836. Portions of it were used by Wilson Hunt in 1811, who followed the original Indian trails and not the exact 1818 trail used by the HBC.
    A practical wagon road route over the Blue Mountains did not become available until 1843 when the 1840 route of Newell and Meeks was improved by a large volume of wagon traffic between the Grand Ronde and the Whitman Mission. Between 1843 and 1847, wagon traffic went on to Fort Nez Perces (old Fort Walla Walla) and then down the Columbia River. This long trail loop northward to Fort Nez Perces was abandoned after the Whitmans were murdered by Indians in 1847, and the Whitman Mission was closed. Resupply at the Mission was no longer possible for Oregon Trail travelers.
    By 1848, a new Oregon Trail route was established that turned westward along the Umatilla River to Echo and then crossed the land south of the Columbia River and terminated at The Dalles. The Oregon Trail of 1852 (Meeks) became the well-established route through Oregon, from the mouth of the Boise River to The Dalles.
    On a curious note, the routes proposed by the military, Fremont’s 1843 route and the Harney route down the Umatilla River, were not used by pioneer wagons. It took practical reality, by actual Oregon pioneers, to create a practical wagon road across the Blue Mountains.

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